15 Comments
Aug 14, 2022Liked by Claire Berlinski

"Since I no more know the answer to that question than you do"

Au contraire! You know one important fact about it. One Donald John Trump very much wished to retain said documents, at the risk of being convicted of a felony with a max 5 years time in prison. He could have returned them - he could have burned them ('no paper - no proof - no problems'). That's an important fact.

elm

narrows the field of things the documents cover quite considerably

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Aug 14, 2022Liked by Claire Berlinski

I’ve enjoyed this entire thread. Not having heard of Madame Steinheil, or the term pompe funèbre, I have now learned a bit about her. Tom Lehrer could do a fine Francophonic version of Alma based on her life. I am curious how many stage plays, films, and novels she has inspired. Félix Faure’s demise reminds of what is said of Nelson Rockefeller’s.

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Pompes Funèbres is also the title of a novel by Jean Genet. Make of this what you will.

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author

Absent the context, it just means "Funeral," or "Undertaker."

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founding
Aug 13, 2022Liked by Claire Berlinski

I'm pretty sure Craiyon is moonlighting at The Spectator?

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Aug 13, 2022Liked by Claire Berlinski

Question about that writing AI: you give it some words that it interprets as subjects you want it to write about, then it searches the Internet for relevant facts and produces the text?

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author

Exactly.

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founding
Aug 13, 2022Liked by Claire Berlinski

So it's the blog of a journalism major.

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author

It does better if you tell it a bit about the story.

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It also would be good to understand the biases of the human programmers of the AI. Those biases, however unintentionally programmed in, will color the biases of the AI, the biases within which it evaluates information, the biases within which it learns for itself/teaches itself as it goes along.

Eric Hines

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author

We're all the human programmers. It learns from us.

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No. We didn't write the code. Only the original coders did that. And those creators endow their AI with those creators' biases. Indelibly and unchangeably.

Eric Hines

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author

But it trains on our Internet.

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Only within the biases laid down by its creator/programmers. The AI cannot escape those bounds.

Besides, the Internet is hardly a random cross-section of humanity. And not at all of the things--living and inanimate--that inform that large sample's attitudes.

BF Skinner could well have been writing about AIs, even though he'd never heard of them.

Eric Hines

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Aug 13, 2022Liked by Claire Berlinski

I gave your craiyon the task of drawing "la pompe funèbre." Twice. It came up with different sets of images, but in the same mood. I don't know if either is good or bad. It also missed the thrust of the phrase. Apparently, a drawing AI--like any artist--needs an emotional and a tactile sense, as well.

Can I have two choices on your survey? I am, after all, a glutton for others' punishment. You must do both "All at once. I can handle it." and "Edit it, Claire. Sternly."

Eric Hines

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